I went bikepacking in France 2 years ago. The locals told us there is always a tap with drinking water at the cemeteries 🙂 We we're cycling in 30 degrees celsius, so we often used the cemeteries taps, never had any problems.
Just a tip to maximize solar output, if you prop the panels so they are perpendicular to the sun specifically in the early and late day you will increase output.
Definitely need to angle the panels, I just went on an ebike small tour charging with 200 watt folding solar and a power station. The difference of the output flat compared to angled is huge. With that much solar, you should be generating way more than you are.
As everyone says, tilt the panels and keep them clean. even just a leaf on them can drastically impact their output. When looking for water in Europe, search for cemeteries. They always have a working tap.
Louis, you don’t need to worry about combine harvesters first thing in the morning as farmers wait for dew to dry and generally start harvesting late morning/early afternoon. They sometimes work up until midnight. In my experience tractors coming down the tracks is a far more frequent occurrence. Cemeteries are the place to go for water, there is one in practically every village, they are usually plumbed into mains water. However if there is a sign “l’eau non potable”. DO NOT drink the water. Some cemeteries may be locked up for the night closing at 18h00.
Freeze dried meals were like a treat for me on my long distance hikes. Sitting down for a hot dinner after hiking 15-20 miles and also a hot breakfast to start the next morning off -- ugh the best! Personally, I think, freeze dried preserves more of the original flavor than dehydration. :D
It is a waste to charge and discharge again, u should have sourced a high powered dc dc converter, they're dirt cheap on temu and a 1200w one would have done u well, bike probably 72v and if put the 4 panels in series for max voltage you'll further reduce conversion losses
Yeah he's losing 20% each time he converts from solar panel to battery and then battery to scooter. Literally 20%+20% so nearly half the energy Louis is getting from the sun is being wasted in battery conversion.
I think that a direct DC converter from solar would not be able to communicate and get past the safety protocols of the BMS to charge the battery directly. Anyone else has a clue?
Love this series and the commitment to solar. I wonder if there is a way for him to wear the solar panels like a cape and then have it plugged into the batteries to charge? Just trying to maximize as much of the driving time as possible. Either that or go full vampire mode and charge/sleep by day and travel by night!
Could’ve just knocked on any of the houses and asked for a bottle of water. Is it very inappropriate or something? Sorry, I’m not from Europe and where I live someone’s first instinct would be that only.
I love this so much that I am on my third time watching all the episodes. I wish they were longer. in the future get a petrol generator and cover more distance, maybe get a quadbike it will be gentle with your back problems
Love your video's. You can make your trip easyer if you bought some gear as a camelbag for water supply and a head lamp, to use when preparing your meal in the dark. They are available at Decathlon with batteries and types you load with electricity. In your case batteries are more handy. Camelbag Forclaz also available at Decathlon . Take care!
Omg Louis heads up friend! I dunno about in France, but where I live in Canada I was always told those field sprinklers are grey water since contaminants for us can be useful or at least not-harmful to fields.
I’m really enjoying this adventure. You crazy cat ! I rode a scooter as my main transport for a year in thailand and i only ended up upside down once. The slower you go the less likely you are to hurt yourself.
Hope all is going well Louis. We are missing your uploads. Even if you don’t make it to Italy only using solar, it’s still an unbelievable achievement. Well done bro!
It would probably be helpful to have some hiking gear like a water filter, poo pack etc. for those more rural areas. Maybe in your down time have a look through some hiking essentials videos and see if anything would be useful? Probably impossible to get things shipped out to you on the road but if you have any mates to stay with further on maybe you could have a few things sent to them.
Need to prob panels on a 45ish angle to the sun. Also if you could get like half a portable panel on your backpack to the power bank to get those extra few percent through the day
You know what a really good solar power system is? You. The power from the sun grows food. We eat the food and can store the energy and release it as mechanical energy as we need it. I appreciate the concept of what you're trying to achieve, but a regular bicycle would be quicker overall.
adventures like these are more memorable, not going through the hassle of planning and getting stressed if something doesn't go as planned just completely ruins the moment. Its subjective but i like it spontaneous
Trip looks good…done a few myself on scooters and motorcycles…not sure I’d do it on anything solar powered as for me it’s going backwards.we use engines as we know there reliability.but glad your having the experience.we aim to do 400 miles a day.
I have the same scooter (16000km on the clock) and thought about long distance touring just for the fun of it ( I have a 1200cc bmw for faster adventuring) , a quick math exercice showed me that this is pretty much not doable in any kind of reasonable time. I thought of a small panel on a trailer to charge while riding and it would still be too slow to charge. You’re confirming my math mate 😅
Any french viewers can correct me if I'm wrong - but I drove through France one summer and we were told the villages felt abandoned because so many locals head to the coast over July and August!
Love seeing the stats from the charging! Do the panels have stands built in? You might get better generation in early hours if you face the panels more towards the sun.
Yes, while traveling in France we saw so many little villages that look abandoned during the daytime. Perhaps they are all at work in the larger cities.
From 80 to 100 it takes about the same time it takes charging from 10 to 80. Don't bother waiting for that magical 100% state of charge! Focus on not getting lower than 10, 20 if you can, and charge no higher than 80% And to get the BEST angle for the sun hitting the panels, simply use your water bottle, put it standing up on your panels, then look at the shadow they cast. Move / tilt the panels until the bottle shadow is gone, meaning it is under its own object. That will tell you that you have the optimal angle/tilt. And stop drinking so much coffee and cut them hair already ! 🙂 just kidding ....... not 🙂
Completely agree! He should charge the moped as fast as possible! Batteries charge slower when they get to full, so he's wasting time & energy on waiting for the backup battery to charge fully. And the power is anyways going to the moped so the earlier the better! And yeah like everyone says, DC to DC charger. The backup battery should have a port for that, too
@@JanvanDijk1996 I think that a direct DC converter from solar would not be able to communicate and get past the safety protocols of the BMS to charge the battery directly. Anyone else has a clue?
@@JanvanDijk1996 Yes indeed if its like a simple 12V storage battery. However a traction battery on an EV like this has more sophisticated communication and safety protocols that prevent you from direct DC to DC charging?
Could u not plug the moped battery itself straight to the solar panel and have the panels charge the moped and back up battery at the same time? I feel like the moped battery itself has a plug to charge to any wall outlet if needed.
Why you don't recharge with single panel while riding? You could recharge the bank all the time, even if it's few W 13:26 just look for cemetery mate. Rookie camping mistakes. 15:42 so frustrating, just knock on someone's door at this point lol (NOT AT NIGHT and DARK lol)
I hope you dug a good hole for your nature pooh and buried your paper properly. I am sure you will have done you seem pretty used to the gentle 😊 although this is me following you for the first time.
Have anyone tried adding alternator to setup like this to see if it can charge power bank ? Will this take take more power to run alternator or be beneficial ?
It's an electric bike/scooter?!?! All you are doing is moving electrons around and wasting loads in the process using an alternator! What he should have done was bought a decent high power DV/DC buck/boost module. You are wasting a lot of energy going from Solar (DC) --> Battery Input--> (DC) --> Battery Output--> (240v AC)--> Bike Charger Input (240v AC) --> Bike Charger Output (Bucked DC) --> Bike battery input (DC) Should be: Solar Panel (DC) --> Bike Battery (DC) [DC Current and voltage can be controlled with High power DC/DC Buck/Boost module The power bank can be charged at the same time as the bike in parallel, this would avoid the wasteful inverting and boosting to high voltage AC.
